


Challenge

by inatshej



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Allison, Alive Laura Hale, Alive Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Arguing, Boys Kissing, Cultural References, Cute, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Jealous Derek, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes, Short & Sweet, Sweet, Tags Are Fun, sociology - Freeform, statistics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-06 01:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8729500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inatshej/pseuds/inatshej
Summary: Stiles is Derek's challenge. He is really good with this computer programme Derek hates, argues with him about everything, flirts with anyone but Derek, and why is he that good looking and engaging?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language.   
> It's actually sort of based on prompts on tumblr, which I saw like a month ago, it was something about arguing, and another about Stiles flirting with anyone but Derek. Plus, there was this really annoying guy sitting next to me on Statistics class, and I wanted to have a revenge. This story worked.

**1\. Motivation**

Derek knows theoretically that all computer programmes were created to help people. SPSS as well. It's just that this _shitty thing_ has never made anything easier for him. This year he has trouble to even download it.

'Please double-check your authorisation code and connection to the Internet', said the coordinator. The guy sitting next to him snorted and in this very moment Derek started hating him. He glared at the boy, who didn't pay him any attention, scrolling through his facebook.

The class started properly and instead of trying to learn how to make the Chi-squared test in SPSS the guy checked his mailbox before doing the task, then started reading a statistics workbook, answered the coordinator's question and – Derek couldn't believe it even when it was happening right before his eyes – he went over statistics _news_ , learning about something called multilevel estimation with poststratification. Jesus.

He really didn't like those kinds of people – self-confident, not taking the class so hard for him seriously, doing anything else just to go back to the task when they _chose_ to.

As soon as the class finished, he went out, relieved. Unfortunately, he saw the guy again a few days later on another course. He grimaced – he liked that subject. Sociological theories were always his favourite. This time they are supposed to talk about Baudrillard's simulations, but he doesn't feel confident. This theory seems so out of touch with reality.

'So, at first let me ask you, what do you think about this concept?', asks their profesor.

'It doesn't make any sense', states the guy from his SPSS class.

Even if he doesn't like Baudrillard's idea, Derek still feels like he needs to object. 'You probably just didn't understand what he was writing about, then', he stated.

'You mean, you did?', asked the guy sarcastically.

Derek raised his eyebrow. 'Yes', he said. 'I think his idea of successive phases of the image is pretty interesting, for example'.

'Well, the first three phases maybe, but what is an image that is _his own pure simulacrum_?'.

It's enough to introduce Derek to the discussion about the text. They actually go beyond Baudrillard and start discussing other theories as well. Derek hates how Stiles, as he's learnt is the guy's name, uses the concepts – if it's Foucault, it's power, even though Foucault was writing about so many other things, if it's Manuel Castells, it's information society, nevermind his contribution to urban studies.

Some other people talk as well, but at the end of the class, it was pretty much Stiles' and Derek's discussion. Isaac stares at him when they leave and Derek decides to go home to avoid any questions.

He just wants to calm down, relax, maybe work on his essay on Baudrillard's theory for a while, when he comes into his apartment building and sees Stiles waiting for the elevator. Great.

Fucking great.

At least they aren't alone, Stiles is talking with a girl and a boy. They turn to greet him, Derek nods, but Stiles only looks at him and says, 'Yeah'.

He's about to ask what's the point of greeting someone with a random word, and maybe Derek should try that as well and speak up to Stiles with a 'why' next time, but Stiles turns away.

'Scott? So, who is it that you want to invite over the weekend?'.

The brown-haired boy looks at him and smiles, unsure. 'We were thinking of asking Isaac, you know, from the class'.

Derek frowns. 'Isaac Lahey?', he asks.

'Yeah, you know him?', Scott is suddenly really intertested in him.

'Uh, yeah, we are sharing a flat'.

'Awesome! Could you tell Isaac that it would be great if he could come? He and his friends, actually, and you, if you want to. We can invite Lydia and Jackson, too. And throw a party!'. Scott grins, already excited at the prospect.

Derek and Stiles gawk at him, neither sure how to react. They are relieved from saying or hearing anything more when the elevator comes finally and their neighbour goes out.

'Oh, Mrs Botwin! You brighten my day as always', Stiles smiles at her, beaming.

'Stiles, good morning'.

'What about our date? This Sunday, for example?'.

The lady laughs a little. 'You're so cute', she says lightly, shaking her head. 'Have a good day'.

'I already have the best day! I met you, after all', calls Stiles after her.

Derek stares at him through the whole conversation, incredulous.

Once in the elevator, he can't stop himself from asking, 'Your date?'.

Stiles turns to him. 'Not yet, but we'll get there', he answers confidently. Scott and the girl with him talk quietly for a moment, checking something on Scott's mobile, just to burst out laughing all of a sudden.

'Stiles, you just lost a bet with Lydia. He _was_ a cyborg'.

Stiles gapes at them. 'Oh, God', he groans. The elevator stops and Derek stays alone, wondering what the exchange was about. Before the doors can close, though, Scott looks back at him. 'I was serious about the party on Saturday'.

'Yeah', not quite answers Derek.

'I'll see both you and Isaac, okay?'. This time Scott doesn't wait for the reply and smiling, turns back to his apartment.

Derek didn't really plan on going.

On Saturday, he finds himself drinking his beer alone. Scott, his girlfriend (Allison, he's heard) and Isaac speak about something in hushed voices. Erica and Boyd are focused on a discussion with another couple, and Stiles stands nearby with Danny and Heather. Derek can't tell whether he is flirting seriously with the girl, the boy, both, or neither. He may be just joking.

He sighs, leaning on the wall. He could have stayed home, but Isaac, really concerned with the meeting, asked him to come along. Derek glares at the friend, immersed in the conversation now.

'Whoa, don't bully the guy!', says Stiles, suddenly next to him, taking more beer.

'I'm just looking at him'.

'Uhh, no, you're always murderously creeping at people if you wear those clothes'.

'Well, if you wear _these_ clothes', replies Derek, eyeing Stiles' dark tee and tight jeans, 'you're always desperately hitting on them'.

Stiles turned away. 'Lydia!', he called. 'He thinks I look gay as well!'.

The blonde glanced at him. 'Isn't that a good thing?' she replied coolly.

They both stared at her.

'Is that Lydia you lost a bet with?', inquiers Derek.

'Yeah, last week I said that this one guy from TV series is human, even though Lydia was convinced he was a cyborg. Yesterday Scott checked the spoilers and here I am, wearing those', he explains, making a face and waving a hand on his chest. Derek can't help but look at his body. If they had met at the club, and if he hadn't know that Stiles is an asshole, he'd-

well, doesn't matter.

'As expected of the girl who saw through Francis Underwood's strategy', muttered Stiles.

Derek stood very still. 'Is she actually human?'.

They discuss _The House of Cards, Westworld_ and other TV series, music and films for the rest of the night. Argue about every single thing.

Over the next couple of days he keeps meeting Stiles, never really expecting to encounter him. As it seems, Stiles flirts with anyone he can, with any _thing_ he can. Derek was shocked and somewhat weirded out when he heard Stiles complimenting his coffee.

He decides to be more active on his statistics class and when their coordinator asks about one of the significance tests, he answers that the result in 'incredible' instead of 'insignificant'.

Stiles laughs out loud.

He plans to take his revenge on their other course, the one about sociological theories, but it turns out their profesor cancelled the class that day. He sees the note with Isaac, who disappears as soon as he spots Scott and Allison. Stiles is walking behind them with the guy from the party. Derek looks at them, trying to remember his name. Danny, probably. He moves towards them, quirking a quick smile to Danny before turning to Stiles to shove in his face the A he got from his essay on Baudrillard.

Scott suggests going to the cafe nearby since they have some time and so Derek ends up discussing with Stiles which coffee is the best for which occassion. Stiles tries to introduce Danny to the conversation, but the guy just laughs at the topic. Stiles doesn't give up, flirts with him, the waiter, and his armchair ('You're so soft', he confesses to his seat, sinking in deeper with a sigh. 'You'll be the death of me'). He argues with Derek, who tries not to be distracted with Stiles' long, pale fingers holding his drink.

Two days later Isaac drags him to Scott's flat to give him something or the other and Derek sees Stiles watching _The Young Pope_ and joins him. They comment every scene, arguing what the words could mean, what will happen next. He kind of loses the track of time in discussion and forgets about Isaac, but they live in the apartment just a floor above, so he must be fine.

The next day in the evening, Derek stands in the kitchen, preparing some tea for himself when Isaac comes up quietly.

'Derek', he starts tentatively. 'You like Stiles, right?'.

So the time has come.

'No, I don't', he answers, scowling. 'We argue all the time. How could I like him?'.

Isaac glanced at him. 'I thought it was just a thing you two had', he said carefully.

Derek frowned even more. 'How does that make any sense?', he asked.

'Stiles doesn't flirt with anyone seriously. He is always joking'.

'How can you tell?'.

Isaac shrugs, avoiding his eyes. When he doesn't say anything more, Derek turns back to his tea.

He starts drinking and forgets about the conversation, planning out his evening. He heads out to his room just to notice that Isaac's still in the kitchen.

'Huh? What's wrong?'.

Isaac puts his hands in the pockets. 'Do you think I can go to Scott's-'.

Derek sighed, wiping his face with his hand. 'Yeah, okay, just let me take my shoes'.

Isaac smiled at him a little. 'Thanks'.

 

**2\. Sentry**

Scott and Allison seem really happy to see Isaac and Derek feels awkward hanging out with them so he goes to Stiles' room. The guy is busy, though, studying both sociology and IT. He tells Derek how much Danny has helped him with all the programming stuff and he feels really annoyed. He can't even say why – he isn't mad at Isaac for taking him here again, he deserves to make more friends. And Stiles is really working hard, he should be happy for the help he's got. He grimaces and changes the topic, asking Stiles about Scott and Allison for Isaac's sake.

'They are good, don't worry', he shrugs. 'Though I didn't really expect the threesome thing'.

Derek stares at him. 'What', he says, frozen.

'You didn't know? Isaac slept with Scott and Allison'.

'When'.

'Two days ago, I guess? And what's with the repulsion to the proper intonation?'.

Derek looks at him wide-eyed, not understanding. As the words finally reach his mind, he turns away. No wonder Isaac seemed so hesitant, while Scott and Allison happy to meet him.

'You're okay with this?'.

Stiles shrugged. 'It's their choice. I think they are all right together'.

Derek nodded, still trying to get his mind around the idea.

'Besides I'm open to all kinds of love', Stiles grins at him. 'Just look at this code. It's genius in its simplicity', he states, turning back to his computer. 'I will love you and honour you all days of my life', he declares.

Stiles was right, Derek supposed. He asked Isaac a few days later if he was okay with Scott and Allison and the boy nodded, ducking his head.

Laura visited him during the weekend. He was checking his mail and just decided to cancel the message from Scott inviting him to play some board games in the pub specialised in this kind of thing, when his sister interfered.

'It's a party', she said, keeping his hand on his shoulder.

'Not really-', he started.

'It is, so you're going. With me'.

The game is actually good. He's never played much, but he is fine. Stiles is awesome, either him or Lydia winning. When Isaac does a particularly good move, Scott kisses him and Allison hugs both of them. Derek smiles a little at how happy they seem before speaking up to Stiles.

'Your move now'.

'I need some stones. Does someone have any?'.

'I do, but I won't trade with you'.

'Asshole. I'll give you 4 clay for 3 stones'.

'5 clay'.

'You're so mean. Nothing like Danny, look at him: nice, handsome and with a great smile'.

'6 clay'.

'Oh god, fine. But you've got to move over there'.

'No, I'm moving closer to your city to make you go bankrupt'.

'You're killing me here'.

'That's what I'm aiming for, yes'. Derek turns to drink some of his beer and notices Laura staring at him.

'Are they always like this?', she asks noone in particular, incredulous.

Pretty much everyone except Stiles and Derek nod.

'This UST is incredible'.

Stiles snorted. 'Incredible', he repeated and grinned at Derek, wiggling his eyebrows.

'Is this for real?', Laura asked again.

'What does UST mean?', inquiered Stiles. Danny averted his eyes, so he looked at Derek.

'I don't know', he shrugged. 'Unresolved Strategy Talk?'.

Laura facepalmed.

They played some more. Stiles was spending a lot of time with Danny that night. Derek felt irritated at their conversation – over the last couple of days he grew closer with Stiles.

When he sees Stiles turning with a bright smile to Danny again, he grimaces. 'You either roll your dice and move or come out to Danny', he voices, watching the board.

'I came out a few years ago, thank you', snaps Stiles.

Lydia narrows her eyes at Derek and Laura frowns, so he decides to shut up for now.

Stiles is talking with Danny again, recalling some situation from their class. When they laugh together, Derek stands up to go outside for a second, drinking some more beer. Laura follows him.

'I'm not talking about it', he says harshly.

Laura sighed quietly behind him and hugged him loosely. 'Okay. Just take care?'.

He nodded.

It didn't go quite that easy with Lydia, of course.

'Look, I don't care if you want to be with Stiles or just fuck him', she started. Derek gaped at her.

'But if you can't stop yourself from spitting shitty comments I'll make sure you don't get many occassions to see him'.

He winced at the words. 'I just asked him to make his move instead of talking with Danny'.

'You were staring at them the whole night. You were so jealous it was pathetic'.

'I wasn't jealous', he denies vehemently.

'Have you checked what does UST mean?'.

He frowns at the sudden change of topic but shakes his head.

'Well, you should', answered Lydia and left.

Okay, so this meeting was bizarre. Laura already went back to her home, so he entered his room and looked up the definition without further ado. Stared at it for a while.

He stood up, made a few steps, sat down on his bed. Left to the kitchen to make some tea, saw that Isaac's room is dark, decided that he's probably downstairs again. Sighed, tidied up the kitchen a bit, went back to his room.

It still didn't make any sense for him to love Stiles.

He saw him the next day, flirting in the elevator with Erica, who in contrast to other people/things Stiles got interested in, flirted right back. She found it hilarious when Boyd got annoyed and stood between her and Stiles when leaving the elevator.

On the SPSS class his data table doesn't seem quite right. Stiles helps him change it and he sighs. 'Thanks'.

'No problem. I didn't know about the weight function earlier as well, Danny has shown it to me'.

Derek tries not to glower at the name. 'Do you want to date him?', he asks, staring at his monitor. God, he is so stupid. He feels his blush spreading while he waits for the answer, his knuckles turning white as he grips his pen.

'Uh, no, though he is a sweet guy. Not exactly my type, though'.

Derek's torn between inquiering what is Stiles' type and asking if it's not everyone and everything he lays his eyes on. He doesn't get a chance to decide on one when Stiles speaks up again.

'Still, whoever ends up with me will have to go through some shit'.

'What do you mean?'.

'I had a bad coming out back in my hometown', answers Stiles, continuingly writting commands in the SPSS.

Derek stops working and looks up at him, feeling sick. Suddenly Lydia's behaviour makes a lot of sense. 'I'm sorry'.

Stiles shrugs and turns to him. 'Now, humour me. Show me your result of Cramer's-V'.

At least his SPSS abilities make Stiles laugh. Two days later they are supposed to discuss Giddens' theory of structuration and Stiles and Derek go through the whole concept agreeing with one another, filling their thoughts and finishing sentences. Derek grins at Stiles at the end, seeing his messy hair, bright smile and flushed cheeks.

He turns away, feeling guilty.

It only gets worse then – Derek knows Stiles doesn't feel the same way about him. Isn't he flirting with anyone, anything except Derek? Aren't they fighting most of the time?

 

**3\. Confrontation**

_I'm friends with Derek_ , Stiles repeats to himself. Even if it sounds ridiculous, somehow they ended up as friends. Admitting that much took a toll on him, so he really doesn't understand why Scott wants him to suffer even more.

'I just think you'd be good together'.

Stiles is so shocked he just gapes at Scott before laughing a beat too late. 'You mean, destructive to each other. We argue all the time'.

Scott frowns. 'Not that much recently'.

'We fight'.

'That's normal in a relationship', states Scott, completely serious.

'No, that's what our relationship is about! Fighting!'.

Scott doesn't seem convinced. 'Are you sure? You've been getting along well lately'.

Stiles turns away. 'Okay, we are sort of friends, so maybe we wouldn't kill each other. And he is good looking', he pauses, eyeing Scott. 'Out of my league kind of good looking'.

'I don't think he'd agree'.

Stiles frowns at him before laughing, again too late in deciding that he should treat Scott's argument as a joke.

The words don't leave him during the next days. He keeps catching himself staring at Derek who never says anything about it but is still really uncomfortable. It kind of gives Stiles the answer to the hypothetical question.

It doesn't make him stop going through every little conversation he's had with Derek, overanalysing his gestures and wondering _what could that look mean?_

It probably means nothing, or something bad. Hurting type of bad.

Half-answers were never good enough for him, so when he meets Derek in the elevator while going home with Scott, he blurts out, 'Do you think that I'm out of your league?'.

Derek stares at him, wide-eyed, the tips of his ears turning red. Stiles lets himself really see the man, and he's beautiful. Not just how he flushes now, but the way he argues with Stiles, making him rethink whatever he believes in, how he drinks his tea completely focused on the taste, how he comments random details when watching a film.

'No', Derek finally answers and turns away, looking like he can't believe what he's just said.

When Stiles and Scott needs to leave, Stiles drags Derek with himself, babbling something about statistics workbook.

Just then Isaac comes to Scott and Allison and Stiles stares at the three of them.

'Right', he starts briskly. 'So I'll go upstairs with Derek. To his room. Because I don't want to trouble you'.

Scott frowned. 'You don't have to-'.

'No, really, I don't want to be a bother'.

'You aren't-', starts Scott again just as Allison interrupts, 'Yeah, thanks, Stiles', she says, smiling. 'We owe you', she adds in this tone that makes Stiles understand that it's him owing her.

It doesn't matter now, though, because Erica and Boyd aren't in Derek's apartment either when they come in.

'You want some tea?', asks Derek, struggling to find some normalcy.

Stiles shakes his head, but can't tear his eyes away from Derek. The man watches him questioningly. 'Uh, what about the statistics workbook?'.

Stiles shakes his head and laughs a bit. 'Later', he responds, stepping forward, closer. He watches Derek's face, turning serious again. 'Do you like me?', he asks.

Derek looks at him, closes his eyes and turns away. 'I'm sorry', he says softly.

Stiles cups his reddened cheek and makes Derek peer at him, unsure.

'When I came out in high school I had to go through some shit', he said, not leaving Derek's gaze. 'If we are to go back to my hometown, which I want, because my dad lives there, you'll go through some shit as well'.

'I don't care', replied Derek.

Stiles knows it's true – Derek has never backed out from a challenge, arguing with him, he's never gave up on searching how to work with SPSS, he always studies theories as carefully as he can.

He doesn't withdraw when Stiles kisses him, either. He only presses to Stiles to be closer, taking on the challenge of dominating the kiss. Stiles can't help but grin before this fight.

 


End file.
